Broken Social Scene

This record doesn't fire on all cylinders the way the indie rock collective's second disc does, but it fires on quite a few. The first two tunes are a little sleepy, but the album jumps out of bed with the 76 trombones of "7/4 (Shoreline)," while "Fire Eye'd Boy" and "Windsurfing Nation" are tirelessly all over the place. Ritalin comes in the form of "Swimmers," the most focused and tuneful track here. The rest kind of spills out after that. Lacking the pointed jabs of You Forgot It in People, this one's more slap-happy, the melodies buried amidst noise and experimentation.

Indie-rock as borderless utopian collective, kind of like Yo La Tengo with no heads instead of two-plus-one ("Swimmers," "Fire Eye'd Boy"). (Grade - ***)